


Of Spiders and Little Brothers

by orangeCrates



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family Fluff, Gen, Malik as the little brother, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 03:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3274343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangeCrates/pseuds/orangeCrates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kadar realizes that there are plenty of people who would prefer to have his problem. He is sure, however, that it's probably because they don't understand what it's like to have a little brother who actively resists being spoiled.</p><p>A modern AU where Kadar is the older brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Spiders and Little Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> For all the older siblings out there who try to spoiler their younger siblings but run into trouble when they resist your attempts.

Their mother used to say that Malik had the soul of an old man.

Kadar did not think that was entirely accurate. It was more like his little brother had gone straight from being the soft, warm, sweet smelling baby who only lay around doing nothing while Kadar poked at his plump cheeks, to a frowny, independent minded and stubborn child while skipping over those years when children usually liked being coddled and spoiled rotten.

Their mother had stories about how clingy Kadar was as a toddler, how he'd always looked at visiting adults with his big, blue eyes until someone picked him up. His mother always joked about how, until the age of five his feet barely ever touched the ground.

On the other hand, Malik has been squirming and insisting to be let down ever since he could. Kadar had experimented once to see how long it would be before Malik would ask to be picked up. In the end, after Malik had nearly walked into a pillar while half-asleep, Kadar had been the one to give up and just swept his brother up.

"Why didn't you just ask me to pick you up?"

"I can walk." Was the sleepy mumble he got as a reply. Malik's small arms looped behind his neck and Kadar had barely taken two steps before his brother was asleep.

Sometimes, Kadar thinks that maybe there had been a mistake, that Malik was supposed to be the older brother, especially when the child would walk into his room and look at the clutter in it as if it personally offended him. It was not a cute expression at all, especially not when he follows it up and asks, "how do you even find anything in here?"

And that was the thing. Malik was a precocious, but not particularly charming child. He frowned at strangers and had an unfortunate tendency to bring children his age to tears ever since he could string together his first coherent (and scathing) sentence.

He did not follow Kadar around and demand his attention, but, instead, would sulk on his own whenever something upset him. Kadar might have accepted this as another part of his brother's solitary nature if he didn't know, for a fact, that Malik liked being cuddled.

In other words, his brother was a stunning idiot in many ways, even if he was more mature in others.

The greatest example of this would be something that happened when Malik was seven.

Kadar doesn't know the details of how it all started but Malik had taken an impromptu trip to the library with their mother and come back with a stack of books about spiders. Malik claimed it was for a project. He's not sure if his mother was fooled, but Kadar knew something was up when Malik was not seen reading any of those books. Their mother tended to describe his brother as 'particular' and that was really the only nice way to describe the way Malik has claimed one corner of the couch to read on (Kadar had flipped over the couch cushion once in full view of his younger brother, just to see what would happen. Malik had stared at him like he was the one with the problem before putting his book on the table before flipping the cushion back around again).

The point is, Kadar didn't see Malik reading on the couch which, logically, could only mean Malik was not reading the books at all. But, if one were to consider everything logically, Malik would not have a project and not complete it. There is a slim possibility that Malik had corrected the character flaw where-in he must have everything _exactly_ the way he wanted it, but it was so slim it may as well have been non-existent.

The only (possible) explanation was that something was up.

He planned to ask because if he waited it could be anywhere from a week to forever before he heard about it from Malik.

He never got the chance to because he heard sounds from the kitchen one night as he came out of the bathroom. Kadar, still mostly asleep, shuffled over to the kitchen and finds Malik standing on a stool in front of the microwave, its door open and illuminating Malik's face in a pale yellow light. They stare at each other for a moment before Kadar reaches out to turn on the lights. They both blink as their eyes adjust to the light and Malik closes the microwave door and avoids looking at his older brother.

Malik knows exactly how many minutes he needs to put his milk in the microwave for to get it the perfect temperature because he had experimented and made notes about it.

Kadar rubs a hand over his face.

"Does this have to do with the spider books?"

There is a petulant silence, then, "no."

His brother is an awful liar. They both know this. But lying by omission tends to work with everyone except Kadar who is better at reading between the lines (and his brother) than anyone expects.

For a moment, there's only the whir of the microwave and Malik stepping off the stool to get a spoon from the drawer.

"Don't you have a test tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Kadar leans against the door frame and watches his brother push the drawer back in, making sure to do so quietly.

"You should be sleeping." Malik says and heads back for the stool as the microwave beeps and goes black. He carefully takes his mug out of, sits down with it then stirs it with the spoon.

"So should you." Kadar pulls out a chair and sits on it backwards. The thing about Malik was that everything he did was logical, and it wasn't hard to divine what he was thinking (for Kadar) if you just take into account a few key important aspects of Malik's personality.

One, he did not run from anything. Ever.

Two, he believed he could deal with everything himself. When he couldn't he got embarrassed.

Kadar watches his brother sip his milk and could only come to one reason for why Malik might have borrowed all those books about spiders and not let anyone know he was reading them that also explained why he would lie to their mother.

"Are you afraid of spiders?"

There is an almost comical look of surprise on Malik's face and when Kadar sees it he knows he's right on the money.

Kadar nearly laughs. Because the way he was dealing with it, by reading about it of all things, was just so _Malik_. He barely manages it, but Malik is not appreciative of his attempts and flushes hotly.

"It's not funny!"

And they both cringe and turn towards the doorway out of the kitchen. They wait one beat, then another and only relax when they're sure they hadn't woken up their parents.

"Is it helping?" Kadar asked only because warm milk is Malik's go to remedy for nightmares.

"Yes."

Malik downs the last of his milk and stands up. Kadar doesn't call him out for that last lie as Malik drags his stool back over to the sink to rinse out his mug. Then they're both heading back upstairs. Malik stops at his door for a moment, and Kadar watches his younger brother's battle with his own pride (already so immense at this young age that Kadar sincerely hopes it does not grow any larger) play out on his face. His small hand tightens on the doorknob as pride wins.

"Good night."

Kadar sighs and puts a hand on Malik's door before he could close it. Then he leans down and, putting one arm behind his brother's back and one behind his knees, scoops him up. Malik lets out a badly muffled yelp and instinctively grabs onto his older brother.

Malik is getting to big to be picked up like this for long periods of time. Thankfully, he only needs to make it three steps before he's dumping Malik onto his bed. Then Kadar pulls his blanket up to tuck him in.

He can see, from the frown on Malik's face that he wants to protest all this as unnecessary just as he knows, from the way Malik's hand snakes out to catch his sleeve that he wants him to stay.

So Kadar saves him from having to say anything and, nudging Malik to the side so there would be space, lays down on top of the blankets beside him.

"I'll keep the big, bad spiders away." He says in a whisper as he brushed a hand over Malik's forehead.

For all that he gets a sleepy, "...jerk."

But Malik is smiling , with his fingers still tangled in Kadar's sleeve and their father find them the next morning still curled up together.

~ + ~

That weekend, Malik asks Kadar to take him to the zoo. They end up hanging out at the insect exhibit for a long time while Malik stands with his face practically pressed against the glass housing the tarantulas, looking simultaneously determined and terrified. When they finished with that, they went to see the rest of the animals and Kadar buys Malik an ice-cream that he did not ask for but clearly wanted.


End file.
